Yes, April Fools’ Day was last week, so – as far as we can tell – this one is legitimate. Five Nights at Freddy’s is heading to the big screen, with Warner Bros. picking up the film rights to Scott Cawthon’s cult horror series.

In case you’ve totally missed the phenomenon, allow me to recap: The game is set in a children’s restaurant named Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza – something similar to Chuck-E-Cheese – where Freddy and his band of animal animatronics perform cheerful songs to entertain diners. At least, that’s what they do during the day. At night, the animals roam the restaurant on a murderous rampage, attempting to stuff naked animatronics (that is: humans) back into their suits (that is: killing them).

You, the player, are accidentally locked inside the pizzeria one night, and must try to survive, knowing that Freddy and his friends are lurking in the shadows.

The indie game was a runaway smash, spawning two sequels, but nobody quite predicted it’d go this far. Developer Scott Cawthon explains that it’s a natural progression, however:

The story really lends itself to being a movie and it taps into a largely unexplored niche of horror that a lot of people will be able to relate to.

While the film is currently looking for a writer, The Hollywood Reporter, um, reports that the producer role has been locked in: Roy Lee (who has just finished work on the Poltergeist remake) joins Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg (currently developing a sequel to Beetlejuice). If that modern horror pedigree isn’t enough, the trio are also also producing a new film based on Stephen King’s It.

Grahame-Smith comments:

We’re looking forward to working with Scott to make an insane, terrifying and weirdly adorable movie.

No word as yet on any dates, for production, release or otherwise – or any hints at any stars or directors who may be attached to the movie version of Five Nights at Freddy’s. One question remains: Who should play Freddy Fazbear?